Retrieval
by Lecs
Summary: It's rare for Leader to send out more than the usual two-man squad on an assignment. So when he assigns more than the normal for an oh so simple 'find-and-retrieve' mission, the Akatsuki are rightfully peaked with interest and slight uncertainty. What is going on?
1. Chapter 1

Okay. So Sasori and Deidara have always been my favorite Akatsuki pair, and I have always wanted to write a story involving them. xD Forgive me if any of the Akatsuki sound OOC, since it's my first time to ever write them. Sasori and Deidara's conversation at the start is based off their pre-fight scene in Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations. This started off as more of a drabble really, written on a spur of the moment sometime long ago, and am only uploading now. As I wrote more and more, a semi-developed plot happened to come across my head... but as I said, it's not a fully developed idea. Just think of this chapter as a short teaser. You guys decide whether I should write more or not in a review — all thoughts and critiques welcome. Bon appétit.

**Disclaimer:** Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

**Chapter Warnings:** Swearing

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"You don't get it, hmm." the blonde sighed, as he faced away from his partner, arms crossed. "Art is a fleeting thing, danna, fading but after a moment."

Sasori narrowed his eyes ever so slightly, a faint look resembling that of agitation on his normally expressionless face. "You're the one that doesn't get it, Deidara. Art is a moment of beauty captured and preserved for all generations."

Deidara sighed, closing his eyes in growing frustration. "As a fellow artist, I can respect your point of view, but... But I simply cannot call it art, hmmm."

Sasori grunted. "You're so blind... But what do I expect from someone who plays with clay?"

Opening his eyes, an insulted Deidara turned to glare back at his partner as angry blue met amber ones. "Oh?! You're one to talk, for someone who plays with puppets all the time."

It was Sasori's turn to sigh this time, as his patience was wearing down quickly. "... Deidara. Would you like me to beat some sense into you?"

Deidara scoffed in turn. "Heh... You're the one who needs some sense knocked into, danna..."

It took a lot to see Sasori genuinely smile at something; and after hearing the blonde's response, he did just that. Deidara raised a skeptical eyebrow in response as Sasori proceeded to speak.

"Well... it seems the time has come to find out who's better then."

Deidara instantly mimicked a half grin, half smirk of his own. "Heh heh... There's an idea... A clash of styles, hmmm!?"

"You want to see art?" Sasori asked, as he pulled a scroll out from his cloak. "Allow me to illustrate..."

Deidara stepped back out of instinct, on guard as he prepared for an attack. Slipping some clay into his hand mouths, he had barely begun to form his classic spider bombs before they heard a grunt in the background, also seizing Sasori from summoning what was in his scroll. Heads turned, two pairs of eyes immediately met with orbs of onyx abyss.

"Hn. As much as it would've been entertaining to see you battle, I'm afraid you'll have to do this some other time."

Deidara narrowed his eyes ever so slightly as the Uchiha murderer himself strode out of the darkness and walked towards them. Expressionless as ever, Sasori on the other hand proceeded to meet his gaze with a blank stare of his own.

"And just what is so important that we had to stop, Itachi?"

"We have a mission." Itachi answered the red head's question coolly. "I was sent by Leader-sama to retrieve you two and get back to base."

"Hmm?" Deidara furrowed his brows together, putting his dislike for the Sharingan wielder momentarily to the side. "By 'we', you mean us three?"

Itachi shook his head. "No. It's not just us."

Sasori raised an eyebrow at his response, ever so slightly intrigued. "What kind of mission is this... ? It is rare for Leader-sama to send out teams in combo."

Itachi turned away, a gesture implying for the two to follow him back as he explained. Gathering Hiruko from where he was working on him, the puppet master along with the blond bomber followed the Uchiha as they left the dim forest clearing, leaping from tree branch to tree branch. "All I was informed was that it is a retrieval mission of some sort. He wanted all the Akatsuki members involved in the mission to be present before he relayed any more details."

Deidara cast a brief glance to Sasori who was a few steps in branches behind him, meeting his gaze with the same traces of doubtfulness swimming among their eyes. Deidara was the first to voice out what they were both thinking.

"If this were a mere find and take mission, _surely_ it wouldn't require more than the normal two-man team, hmmm."

Itachi grunted from up front. "That's what I was thinking."

"So, who are the others that are supposed to be on this mission?" Sasori asked.

The Uchiha let out a rare sigh of exasperation to himself at the inquiry.

* * *

"Where the _hell_ were you guys? You fuckers sure took your time in getting here!" boomed the infamous silver-haired bad mouth. Beside him, the other person to the zombie duo sighed in annoyance, growling under his breath.

"Shut up, Hidan. I'm too tired to put up with anymore of your yelling, and I'll gladly rip your head off ten times over if you keep on doing so."

The Jashin-worshiper sneered. "Fuck you, Kakuzu. I'll do whatever I fucking _please_!"

"That's enough now you two," A blue-skinned man intervened before things got ugly and violent. They really didn't need any of this right now. Turning his head over his shoulder, he nodded to his partner and the two artists trailing behind as his way of a curt greeting.

"Leader-sama is waiting in the other room, Itachi."

"Hn."

With a nod back from the redhead and the blonde to the other members, everyone entered the room with slight curiosity and interest in what they were to expect from the sudden peculiar meeting.

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— Like I said, it's a half teaser half drabble. Next chapter will be longer and hold more information. Just to throw out something for you guys to go on, I will reveal that obviously, there's more to the mission than meets the eye; and our favorite pale-eyed beauty is involved. ;) —


	2. Chapter 2

I finally have an idea of where I want this story to go! Just two things to note: this story takes place during the Fourth Shinobi World War, sometime before the Akatsuki capture Killer B; the second thing is that Sasori survived his fight with Sakura. I'm only vaguely familiar with specific events in Shippuden since it's been a while since I've watched the anime, and no I don't read the manga — so forgive me if whatever I write doesn't fall in context to the Narutoverse. Just point out whatever doesn't make sense and I will gladly correct it. And also, I'm very grateful to those of you who took the time to read this and leave a review and/or favorite it. You make me one happy authoress :')

**Disclaimer:** Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

**Chapter Warnings:** Possible grammar/spelling errors. I still don't have a beta yet, so please overlook any mistakes for now until I look over this later.

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"Are we there yet? We've been walking forever, hmm."

This was probably the fifteenth time the blonde had asked that question. Sasori was losing his patience. "It's only been 6 hours. Shut it, brat."

Deidara slowed his pace down, forcing the red head to stop and look back at his partner. He gestured towards the fading sky with an arm. "It's already sunset, and we set off around noon."

From inside Hiruko, Sasori tried to stop himself from sighing from annoyance. Deidara would do this every time. They had both agreed to at least get as far as Fire Country's borders, and then and _only_ then could they adjourn and take a break. The mission was time oriented, so time management was essential. They couldn't afford wasting time on breaks that weren't needed, and the fact that they had to travel through long side roads to remain inconspicuous only added more onto the fact of how vital their time was.

"We still have a long ways to go until we reach Konoha," he stated gruffly.

Deidara grumbled. "It'd be a lot easier if we could just fly on my clay bird, hmm."

"We already went over this. Your bird will just attract unwanted attention."

Deidara opened his mouth to respond back, but closed it once more when he realized he couldn't argue with the red head's point. He settled for a long, tired sigh instead.

"I don't see why we're stuck with this job... Itachi and the rest have it much easier, yeah."

Sasori made no reply, and simply turned back around to continue walking. The blonde bomber soon grudgingly followed behind him, sulking. Deidara did have a point, the puppeteer admitted, but orders were orders. The fact that leader specifically assigned them for this part of the mission was in fact, a compliment in itself to the duo. They indeed might have gotten the most _difficult_ part, but it was also the most _challenging_.

To say in the least, the next few days should not be boring.

* * *

The office smelt like light floral perfume, mixed with the ever so slight traces of sake — wafting through the air and up into her sensitive nostrils.

"Achoo!" she sneezed, covering her mouth with a pale porcelain hand.

"Bless you," said the busty woman sitting behind the large mahogany desk before her. Hinata sniffled a bit, lowering her head in gratitude.

"Thank you," she replied in that soft voice of hers. The godaime waved her off with her free hand, in a gesture to say that it was nothing. Fingering the document with her other hand, her honey brown eyes scanned it once more over before looking back into pale lavender orbs.

"Do you understand what you need to do?"

"Hai," Hinata reponded. Albeit her demure stance, her tone was affirmative.

The sannin continued to stare at the kunoichi for a few moments, mentally going over her decision once more. People often took Tsunade as the type of person to stick with her choices the first time through; and generally speaking, those people were right. Though one would think a political leader would have an inept ability to excel in any type of decision making, the blonde was an exception to the rule when it came to gambling. And it just so happens that in this particular mission, she _was_ taking a gamble. At least, more than the usual risk when any ninja went on a mission.

The assignment was unique in many ways, and it wasn't just because it was a high level A-Rank. Only a select few could meet with its conditions; and the ultimate requirement that trumped all the others was the fact that only a Hyuuga could complete the task at hand. Because of that, her choices were already limited from the start. The first person she thought of was automatically out when Tsunade realized that he was already on another mission in Iwagakure. Had she known something like this would have popped up, she would've promptly substituted Neji with another ANBU member in his place.

Moving on to other options, the girl standing before her was the next person to come to mind — her long locks still a bit disheveled, no doubt from rushing to meet for their impromptu meeting. The indigo blue color starkly contrasted against her standard mossy green jounin vest, over a sleeveless black undershirt with gloves reaching her elbows. At 17, Hinata Hyuuga had certainly grown. And yet five years later from her diffident 12 year old self, and only half a year of being promoted, the Hyuuga still had its time-lasting inner conflicts within the clan. Some things just never changed; but Hinata was determined to make one.

One of the reasons the godaime originally thought of Neji for this mission and not Hinata, was _not_ in fact, because of strength or power. Though it was close to fact that the older Hyuuga was indeed physically stronger, it did not mean the younger was weak. The two Hyuugas were strong on different levels, each in their own way. While Neji was the best Hyuuga by far in executing the Hyuuga style, no one could compare to Hinata's range of seeing when it came to the Byakugan. Years of experience on a tracking team had truly helped her hone her skills, enabling her to see beyond the Hyuuga standard. Both ninja were also as influential as they were smart and level headed; Neji with his logical inputs and Hinata with her fair judgement on a situation. Along with the other Konoha 11, they were two of the best yet in their generation of shinobi.

The only thing about the latter that made her unsure was the fact that she was already dealing with Hyuuga issues; and with their situation at hand, she may be better off handling her clan affairs first. Yet at the same time, the _village_ needed her to do her part as well as a shinobi. It wasn't just any Hyuuga, or any other ninja for the matter, that could meet with others to establish political ties. With the people Hinata would be dealing with, she would actually be attempting to _re_-establish connections. Tsunade just hoped that while Hinata was able to — and probably already has — put the past behind her, the people of the Clouds could do the same. Though it was a high risk to make an assumption, desperate times called for desperate measures with the war still underway and building. Every village needed all the allies they could get.

"Alright," Tsunade began, "The rest of the mission details are for you to read over on your own time. I expect you to leave no later than an hour from now with the things you need and be on your way."

"Hai, Tsunade-sama," Hinata bowed once before taking the scroll from the blonde's hand. And just like that, after 10 minutes of conversing over what she was to accomplish, the kunoichi left as quickly as she came.

Reaching out for her sake bottle to take a swig of it once more, the blonde sighed as she averted her eyes from the door the Hyuuga left through. A lot of what Konoha _would_ and_ could_ do in the future depended on whether this mission was a success or failure. She knew she was risking, and it was _a lot_; but at the same time, the benefits that would come along with the potential success were just too much to not take the risk and go after.

She just hoped that for once among her many losses in gambling, that she was right this time.

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Her indigo hair flew behind her as she jumped from rooftop to rooftop, hastily making her way back to the Hyuuga Compound where she would get ready. Ino, who'd be her partner in this mission, would meet up with her halfway as she was scheduled to just be coming back to the village from completing her own mission. Hinata didn't know if it was for the sake of efficiency, or if the hokage was just truly confident in their abilities alone to only have a two people traveling on board; it was probably the former, she guessed. It made sense though, since more people would just hinder their progress. And their arrival to the village hidden in the clouds for their meeting _was_ time sensitive.

She gradually let up on her speed when she saw the familiar roofs to her estate from afar. A part of her was slightly glad that she received this mission when she did; she really did feel like she needed the time to sort out her situation with the clan. The past few months have been full of emotions, from worry, to stress, to anxiety... but the one feeling that stood strongest out of all of them was resentment. A small part of it was towards _herself_.

Landing softly in front of iron gates, she reached to pull them open as a weary sigh escaped her. Pushing her thoughts to the side, she forced herself to focus on other more important things, like what she needed to pack and determining the proper route to take on their journey to Kumo.

At first step inside, she was greeted with the usual silence of the Hyuuga household. Making her way up the stairs and turning the corridor to where her bedroom was located, her gaze immediately met with a figure at the end of the hallway. Sensing her arrival, the person's closed eyes immediately snapped open as white clashed with white orbs in a stare; pale, pupiless eyes like that of her own... except this version was cold; void of emotion. The person was leaning against her bedroom door, with arms crossed in front of her chest.

"Aneki," the voice greeted.


End file.
